From Cicadas To Crickets, Insects As Cuisine
Mike Rothman (R) and friends eat periodical cicadas they prepared as part of the Hot One's challenge at home in Hyattsville, Maryland. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption
Mike Rothman (R) and friends eat periodical cicadas they prepared as part of the Hot One's challenge at home in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesWe recently did a show about the cicada double brood emergence. Billions of the bugs are above ground this year. And the conversation... took a bit of a turn... towards whether they can be eaten. (They can.)
Some of you are certainly thinking you'd never eat a bug. But more than 2 billion people around the world eat insects as part of their standard diet. That's according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
When we had that conversation, our host, Jenn White, would have described her enthusiasm to taste insects as... mild. But a lot changed since our conversation with our guests for the cicada show. Including her willingness to try eating ants and crickets.
Why are many of us so opposed to eating insects when humans have been doing it around the world for centuries? And how might changing our perspective on insect consumption benefit us and the planet?
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